The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-10
OPIUM FARMERS.
PEOPLE WHO CULTIVATE THE
POPPY IN FLORIDA.
Three Objects Of the Hindoo Farmer
Women and Children at
Wol K in the eFieldS-Dis-
posing Of the Crop.

"There is nothing that the soil can pro-
duce that can be cultivated with more
profit to the husbandman than the pop
py, if it is cultivated in the right coun-
try" said the head of a large importing
house, land yet there are no farmers in
the world who are so universally and
perpetually povcrty-stricken, as the
growers of the poppy. The many thou
sands OF people who are engaged in the
production of opium in 1ndia-and I
speak from personal knowledge obtained
on extended visits to the provinces of
Benares, Bahar, and Malwah-live year
lfter year from hand to mouth, when they
might reap fortunes bya very little energy
and extra exertions. The opium farmer
If India lives and labors with but three
objects in view. These are, first, to
decorate his wife profusely with orna-
ments, to eat off brass plate, and to be
In position to make great display when
lis oldest son is married. As far as the
wife's jewelry is concered that is matter
# religious duty, the Hindoo religion
demanding that certain ornaments must
be worn by married women, and the real
wealth, if wealth it may be called, of the
native land owner is in his wife's Jewels,
and whatever a husbandman may gain
by his poppy culture he Immediately in
vests in jewelry, the same as the Yankee
farmer places his money in bond and
mortgage. If the Indian farmer on mar
! rying cannot do any better in the way of
jewclry, he must give the bride he OBJ
tains lead ornaments. This keeps the
religious form, but the very first year he
has been energetic enough to raise good
opium crop the lead jewelry gives place
to silver or gold. On the marriage of
his oldest son an Indian farmer will
waste in weeks jollifcation the entire
savings of years of privation.
"It is a strange sight to see the
Hindoo women at work in the fields,
gathering poppy juice or picking weeds,
decked out with huge gold rings, brace
lets, anklets and chains, and wearing but
g single short petticoat and a gay
colored wrap of light texture. The
; wants of the Indian 1uiat as the farmer
is called, are very few and simple. A
thatchcd roof, covering four confined
mud walls, shelter him, and there are
families who have lived for hundreds of
years, generation after generation, in
the same hovel-like homestead. The
farmers suit of everyday working
clothes is very scant cloth. His
dress-up' suit IS big cotton sheet
folded about him. His entire family,
from himself down to the smallest child
he owns, that is not too small to crawl
about among the poppy plants and
know the difference between a weed
and poppy, share in the toll of the
field. The small children are clothed
just as they came into the world, and ap-
pear comfortable, no matter how hot the
sun shines or how low the temperature
may fall-and in November, December,
January and February, when the bulk of
the field work is done, the weather is
quite cold enough for at least summer
clothing.
''These happy-go-luck tillers of the
soil depend entirely on the Government
to keep them going year after year in the
matter of farming. Thus the Govern
mont advances the poppy seed that is to
be sown, loans the money by which the
land is irrigated and the bullocks pur-
chased to carry on the work. The cult
yator will not till more of his land than
he can manage without other help than
his own immediate family, and conse-
quently patch leased to any one farmer
that is half an acre in extent is an excep-
tionally large holding. The one
twentieth of an acre, called u GgkG, is
the favorite quantity of land for farmer
to seed down with poppies, but he will
put in tenth or sixth on pinch.
There are untold advantages in the grow
ing of opium for extended enterprise,
but the raiat will not cxpend the smallest
Indian coin to acquire these advantages
and with it great gain, for the profit in
opium production is large, owing to the
policy of the Government in paying large
prices for the product as a means of pre-
cluding illicit traffic in it.
.sThe farmers themselves have no di-
rect intercourse with the Government.
Each. village Of opium growers selects
some native as their representative Or
agent with the authorities. He is called
tie Mm6adar, 1t is his business to give
e5timates to the Government agents as to
the probable yield of the farms he repre-
sents, on which the loans and advances
may be based. He manages every trans
action between the Government and the
farmers, and for his services he gets
commission on all the opium he causes
to be delivered tc what are known as the
weighing stations, points where the pro-
duct of certain districts is carried by the
growers and turned over to the agents.
"The opium gathering begins in jan
uary or February. The poppy flowers
have then given way to the seed pods,
which are lanced in the afternoon. The
thick gum, the opium, exudes from the
cut made in the pod. and at daylight the
next morning the entire family of a raiat
are astir in the fields, scraping the opium
from the pods, the incisions being care
fully closed again, by rubbing the finger
sharply up and down on the cuts, which
CLUES them shut. If carefully treated
the pods will expand literally to six
lancings. The opium is at first placed
in brass vessels, and the dew that may
adhere to it is drained off. Then it is
kneaded like dough until it is at the
proper consistency, when it is packed in
new earthen jars and is ready to be car
ried to the weighing stations.
"Thc order to fetch in the years crop
of opium is generally given carly in April,
and that is the most interesting season
of the year to the RANT and his family.